The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.

Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.

Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!

I am Mr. Andrew Akintola,Bank Manager of Zennith Bank,Lagos,
Nigeria. I have urgent and very confidential business
proposition for you.

On June 6, 2001, a Foreign Oil consultant/contractor with
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mr.Gerald Welsh
made a numbered time (Fixed) Deposit for twelve calendar
months, valued at S$29,500,000.00 (Twenty Nine Million Five
hundred Thousand Dollars only) in my branch. Upon maturity,
I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but
got no reply.

After a month,we sent a reminder and finally we discovered
from his contract employers, the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation that Mr. Gerald Welsh died from an
automobile accident.

On further investigation, I found out that he died without
making a WILL, and all attempts to trace his next of kin
was fruitless.I therefore made further investigation and
discovered that Mr.Gerald Welsh did not declare any kin or
relations in all his official documents, including his Bank
Deposit paperwork in my Bank.

This sum of US$29,500,000.00 has carefully been moved out
of my bank to a security company for safe-keeping. No one
will ever come forward to claim it. According to Nigerian
Law, at the expiration of 5 (five) years, the money will
revert to the ownership of the Nigerian Government if
nobody applies to claim the fund.

Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you as an
Foreigner to stand in as the owner of the money I deposited
it in a security company in two trunk boxes though the
security company does not know the contents of the boxes as
I tagged them to be photographic materials for export.

I am writing you because I as a public servant can not
operate a foreign account or have an account that is more
than $1m.I want to present you as the owner of the boxes in
the security company so you can be able to claim them with
the help of my attorney.All these are to make sure that the
fruits of this old man's labor will not get into the hands
of some corrupt government officials.

This is simple. I will like you to provide immediately your
full names and address so that the Attorney will prepare
the necessary documents which will put you in place as the
as the owner of the boxes.

The money will be moved out for us to share in the ratio of
70% for me and 25% for you and 5% will take care of all
expenses.There is no risk at all as all the paperwork for
this transaction will be done by the Attorney and this will
guarantee the successful execution of this transaction.

If you are interested, please reply immediately via my
email address. upon your response, I shall then provide you
with more details and relevant documents that will help you
understand the transaction.

Please observe with utmost confidentiality, and be rest
assured that this transaction would be most profitable for
both of us because I shall require your assistance to
invest my share in your country.